Emily:� ??? Is that so? I like to hear that kind of music. [faint voice] Jazz music.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [Me, no, I don’t like to hear no kind of music like that (?)]. [laugh]
Emily: That’s right. That’s fine.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I thought you were going to stop.
Emily: No that’s fine.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [Aunt Phoebe Boyd clears her throat] That kind of music. ??? go down as I was driving. Humm?
Emily: That’s it. [Go on (?)].
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [preaches] Drive on. Drive on out and there I was ??? See! [Aunt Phoebe laughs]
Emily: I see. I see.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I had to get on out of my car. I got a mother. [Shook to (?)] Henry Leonard and he had a father. Thought he was going to stop. I’m telling them now we ain’t nothing without the Lord. Got to put our trust in them and gave us ??? . That’s why I’m walking today.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [laugh]
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: ??? . And um, this young gentleman he’s a stranger to me, isn’t he?
Guy S. Lowman: Yes, and a very nice gentleman.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: ???
Guy S. Lowman: He teaches, you know. He teaches.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Hmm?
Archibald A. Hill: I teach up at the university.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: You do? That’s nice.
Archibald A. Hill: [How much (?)]—
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: You know that’s nice. That’s nice. I trust the Lord will bless you all. You all hold onto the best you can we live. Let, take the Lord with you.
Guy S. Lowman: I hope I can.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes. Yes, sir. Well, I’m, you can hear another gentleman and he [laughter] I have to tell you all because–
Guy S. Lowman: I know we need it.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [Yeah (?)]?
Guy S. Lowman: We need it.
Emily: What’s your name?
Him. He told me, ” Go on now. Up that hill now. Touch Him and if they don’t believe in them, do you let Him stand in there? “Say,”I ain’tgoing to.”See and you know where I got you [laughs]–
Emily: That’s right, let them have it.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: –and ah, [sharp snap] wish you all the good luck. Ever hold your hands in his? [sings] Good Lord� ??? [clap] I would say, get in trouble, all you got to do is call Him. See! [laugh]
Guy S. Lowman: Only one you can call.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, sir. Call Him. Call Him. That’s all of you. And this young lady right here, you know, I know ah, you all’s buddy that’s why I come up here [to this house (?)]. Wouldn’t have been here if she hadn’t [laugh] her. [Uhmm (?)]. You all didn’t live no far of her grandfather. That one’s your grandfather?
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Grandfather. You all didn’t live very far her father. [cough] [slight echo] And I didn’t had forgot that her father was born. I don’t know, I don’t know about the old man. The name. What it John [Prophet (?)] ?
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Name John [Prophet (?)]. [distortion]� I wrote them ??? . Well didn’t ??? [distortion and echoes] [some confusion, the microphone may have fallen and frightened Aunt Phoebe] Well, didn’t–
Guy S. Lowman: That’s all right. Just hold on [to this chair (?)].
Mrs. John Faulconer Ware: [speaking across Guy S. Lowman and Emily] No harm done there. And that’s all right keep your hand in that ??? .
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Well, this your– [laugh]
Guy S. Lowman: That’s all right it won’t hurt you. It won’t hurt you.
Mrs. John Faulconer Ware: That’s all right [could be (?) ] ???
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And ah course, didn’t ah, Dr. Tri–that’s George Tripper father.
Emily: That’s right. Dr. Tripper married–
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Married Mrs., Mrs. ah, she was, he was married three times wasn’t he?
Emily: Four times.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Four times.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Well, he married Mrs., old Mrs. Charles [Briggs’ (?)] widow–
Emily: That’s right. That’s it. Married–
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: –married her, his widow.
Emily: That’s right.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And of course my husband’s mother, she know ah, when she went away from here to Fredericksburg.
Emily: Yeah. That’s it. That’s right–
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: –and ah she had to go. She stayed here, out, out ah, with, with, wasn’t her name, Mary?
Emily: Yeah. That’s just what her name was.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yeah, Mary Tripper. Mary Tripper. And ah, ??? all just as good as good two people. Was at his, and they were buried. Was at his burial. And he had a daughter named, Emeline. Ain’t she living?
Emily: She dead.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Emeline still be living?
Emily: No. She dead.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Is she?
Emily: Yeah. She dead.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Course, Mr. Reverend Phillips, they had the wake, you know. [For her son (?)].
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And Mr. went in to see them, she ??? , and um, and that, and they didn’t, didn’t bury them until after he come; after she come.
Emily: Yeah. After she come.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yeah. Just load them all ??? so many times I done looked for George ??? . Yeah.
END OF SIDE A
Interview with Aunt Phoebe Boyd, Dunnsville, Virginia 1935
Go to: Bibliographic Information
AFS t25,749B
Interview with Aunt Phoebe Boyd, Dunnsville, Virginia 1935
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: ??? [trolley (?)] and on the ground, you know, to the door. And she was looking out the window and she call me–
Emily: Ahha.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Robert was with me–
Emily: Yeah. Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: –her son.
Emily: I know.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yeah. And ah, sometime I hear people call me. So I go to them. Went on in. And went on up the stairs. Up, you know in the room.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And even down on the, that day when I went, I had a cake baked. Chicken fried, and I did it! And carried a basket–
Emily: ??? it’s all right.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Hmm?
Emily: That was nice.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, ma’am. And brought a ham when he, a ham to me.
[Mrs. John Faulconer Ware (?)]: You baked a ham, you mean?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, ma’am. And we cooked it and I had a box. I said I going carry something else for her so she didn’t have to go into the table.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Table [is reason why I (?)] [laugh]–
Emily: ???
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: –now and I go there, if I go up in there again, I’m going down that same place again.
Emily: That’s right. That’s right.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And, and ah, she said, “Ma’am, I’m working now.” I said, “I’m ??? in the laundry.”
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I said, “That’s exactly what you ought to be doing.”
Emily: Yeah. That ??? .
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: They put you, yeah, put you to work. ??? . And I’m telling them now, our people got to do right in the sight of God, because he knows all about us. And I’m, and I’m so thankful.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Proud.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Proud that they have ??? . And I tell you, those people these days, the young folk, the young folks ain’t taking the time. Is they?
Emily: No. They’re not.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: They ain’t taking time.
Emily: Don’t want to.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: They ain’t taking time. But I’m telling you [laugh], for the day is coming.
Emily: Yes it is. They don’t think about that though.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I was at ah, St. John, that’s a catholic [denomination (?)], and ah, a man got up to speak. You know they hear the sermon preached before they dry bone.
Emily: I don’t believe I ever did.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [laugh] Yeah. I take notice.
Emily: But you can tell me. Tell us something about it.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [laugh] The man couldn’t even speak, if they wanted him. And so when, he got up and he come there to speak, I take notice. I take notice. In that Bible over there. That’s right. Come here to speak. God knows what people say. [It’s written ??? book (?)]. And it’s quote in text about a dry bone.
Emily: Dry bone.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And we ain’t know nothing about dry bone.
Emily: No.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [laugh]
Emily: But we ??? .
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, ma’am.
[Mrs. John Faulconer Ware (?)]: ???
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Ma’am? We been on. Way down in me ??? dry bone. We by and by. [laugh] Finally got they by and by.
Emily: You like to hear that kind of music.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, ma’am.
Emily: I do too.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I know. They gave us, Lord, commands gave us. Lord is coming. Yes, sir, that day is coming. That day is coming. That day is coming and we got to prepare that day.
Emily: Yeah.
[Guy S. Lowman: That’s true (?)].
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: They gave us, commandments, Lord. I want to hear the first trumpet when it blows that morning. He, gave us commandments, Lord. They gave us Christ, went down Jerusalem. Mount Dry Bone. [laugh]
[Mrs. John Faulconer Ware: What was that (?)]?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Jesus went down to Mount Dry Bone. ??? he rode his ??? . [laugh]
[Guy S. Lowman: What did you say (?)]?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: We ain’t nothing without the Lord. I will praise him. ??? . I had to get hold of them. [laugh]
Guy S. Lowman: [What did you say (?)]?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I had to get hold of–
END OF SIDE B
Interview with Aunt Phoebe Boyd and Emily, Dunnsville, Virginia 1935
Go to: Bibliographic Information
AFS t25,750A
Interview with Aunt Phoebe Boyd and Emily, Dunnsville, Virginia 1935
[indistinct conversation occurs before Guy S. Lowman (?) says]: All right now, [let’s begin (?)].
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [Well I don’t rest my (?)] ??? .
Emily: We were here long before the war was over.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Before the Civil War. Was here when ??? .
Emily: What!
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, ma’am.
Emily: [Well I must say (?)] you working hard ain’t you?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Uhhh. You see these Henry James have a ??? ?
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Them was old man Tom Henry, [children (?)].
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And old Mrs. Melissa Armstrong, and Mrs. Martha Henry, Dr. Henry’s wife, for his first wife was a [Lumpkin (?)].
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Dr., Dr. Henry–
Emily: I know.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: –and his, he married Mrs. Martha Croxley. Umm, the old man Jimmy Croxley’s daughter master. Old Mrs. Melissa Armstrong was, old Mrs. Melissa Armstrong she was, old Mrs. was her sister, see.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And then they hired me out, Mrs. ??? . I come up with the youngest girl her father married my mother and her house with the youngest girl and they, the father [close (?)] to the boy, John Thomas.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And old man Tom Henry’s son, Tom Henry, married Mrs. Melissa Armstrong’s daughter, Martha.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: They had two–
Emily: I heard they had two.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: –Martha Armstrong and Mary Armstrong.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: She had three, and John Armstrong. And he got children here in town. Old man Tom Henry, old Dr. Henry’s grandson, and I was hired out [right here on (?)] ??? and Mrs. Melissa Armstrong kept me until just before it was the Civil War.
Emily: [I (?)] don’t pay you any money back then?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [great laugh] Stop. And ah, and you know, you know when I had that ??? attack of sickness?
Emily: Yeah. Yes. I remember.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: You remember?
Emily: Yes. Ahh. I do.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And Dr. Shade take care me.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And he asked me one day, he say’s ah, “How old are you?” I told him I couldn’t tell him, but I was hired out before the Civil War. Everybody was slaves. And ah, I told him I couldn’t tell him. I reckon I was about twelve or fifteen-years old when the [Civil War began (?)].
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I didn’t ??? .
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Well, he counted it up. Well honey, that’s been over ten years ago, ain’t it?
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And ah, he counted it up. [the recording echoes] and he told I was seventy-five years old then.
Emily: Then, [not now (?)].
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And you, you know, you know when ah–
Emily: –when you had that spell?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Seventy?
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Seventy. [laugh]
Emily: You are, you between eighty-five years old–
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, ma’am. I’m going down to the hundred fast. I’m telling me n– [laugh]
Emily: Yes, that’s right. And time just flies past you.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Certainly. Doesn’t it? And, and don’t you know. [laugh] Got good member [memory].
Emily: Yes, you have.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, ma’am. And I’m glad, I’m thankful I’m, I’m, I, I can’t keep nothing in my mind.
Emily: I think you do mighty well. That’s all those ??? .
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [laugh]
Emily: Well, now did you have a good time, a nice meeting in yesterday’s church?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Fine.
Emily: You did?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Have a good time.
Emily: Ahha.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Fine meeting.
Emily: Who preached?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: What’s his name?
Emily: Faulk?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: No Faulk. The man had came from Richmond to preach to us.
Emily: ??? Faulk in Richmond?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes.
Emily: Yes, he did.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: He is nice as–
Emily: I like hearing him preach.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [cough] He did something.
Emily: Yes, he did.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: That’s what I been told.
Emily: Well, well, tell us something about the meeting last weekend. [Just how (?)], how long it lasted? How many sermons were preached?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: What, yesterday?
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: There was one yesterday morning. We didn’t get there to the morning sermon. And we was there in the evening.
Emily: Yes.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And I forget the man’s name. Oh, he preached a fine sermon.
Emily: Oh. Did anybody get happy?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: No.
Emily: Didn’t?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I don’t think it [mattered (?)].
Emily: Somebody ought to get happy.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Well, then you know they did, they did, they the witness of the Bible have to have been truly born by the Holy Spirit you know.
Emily: Yes.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: See?
Emily: Yes. I see.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Your ah, witness in your breath.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And I know he was preaching and I–
END OF SIDE A
Interview with Aunt Phoebe Boyd, Dunnsville, Virginia 1935
Go to: Bibliographic Information
AFS t25,750B
Interview with Aunt Phoebe Boyd, Dunnsville, Virginia 1935
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, ma’am. I think they had, had three hundred people out.
[Mrs. John Faulconer Ware: And what did they produce (?)]?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Out of [Clininton (?)].
Emily: [Clininton (?)].
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [Clininton (?)].
Emily: Uhmm.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Get all. Get all the water outdoors and I run on in the church, you know.
Emily: Ah ha.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I come on in the door, Brother Faulk, “Sister, Phoebe. Come here.” [Then (?)] I say, “What you want with me?” [He said (?)], “Had you had any dinner?” I told him, “Yes, sir.” [laugh]
Emily: He was very nice to you.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes. Your mom raised him up.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: He’s been to my house.
Emily: Yeah, and she told this man yesterday [he knew me (?)].
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Hmm?
Emily: [Used to find him in a minute, right there (?].
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Who?
Emily: Ah, Reverend Faulk.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: He was at my house. You know, had them prayer meeting up here last week. Was it last week?
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Last [weekend (?)]?
Emily: Yeah. Week before last.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes.
Emily: Yes.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Well, how many converts did he have?
Emily: I didn’t hear.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I didn’t know. But he was–
Emily: I can remember two.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: He, never comes in this neighborhood if he’s got the time when he don’t come to my house. He got to read the Bible and pray for me.
Emily: Ahha. Well, I declare!
[Guy S. Lowman (?)]: Yes.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, ma’am. [That’s the word that comes, I knew him (?)]. I love him.
Emily: Yes, he’s a good man. Well, I tell you don’t people don’t, don’t go to church like they used to. They don’t care so much for it.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Let me tell you something. Everything else in my house comes through the church. Who is we all without the Lord? Hmm?
Emily: That’s it.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: He hold us in the [hull (?)] of his hand.
Emily: That’s right.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Now don’t he?
Emily: He certainly does.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: All power in his hand.
Emily: But the young ones is forgotten that.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yeah. But I’m telling you myself. And then they shame, they don’t, don’t honor him like they ought to.
Emily: That’s it.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Don’t do it.
Emily: No, they don’t.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And ah, because he [will the meaning, in my rest I talking to them (?)]. And the voice come to me and in my rest, I [pray up to (?)] heaven, please don’t lock the door.
Emily: That’s right. That’s right.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: See?
Emily: Say, I know.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: The witness is in our breath.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I went to the first free school after the Civil War. I was fixing get married then. [laughter and a clap] [Guy S. Lowman (?) makes an indistinct remark] [Mrs. John Faulconer Ware (?) joins the laughter] Fixing with getting married then and the first free school was, was ah opened after the Civil War. I went to it; and, and my husband didn’t want me for to come out the school, so if I stayed in school he pay my way. Because he was [fending (?)] for me. And I could know my ABCs, know my, know how to spell and everything but still [confusing overlay of voices] I, I could spell now sometime. [laugh]
Emily: Well, that’s fine. That’s fine.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And, and if I had a kept on you know I could have–
Emily: –you could have been reading and writing–
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Certainly!
Emily: Yes, you would.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And every child I have I sent every one to school. And ah–
Emily: Ahha.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: –every child I got can read and write except for Julius. She can read but she can’t write.
Emily: Can’t write. Well, I [declare (?)]!
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Lucy can read but she can’t write.
Emily: Yeah. Well, how is Lucy now?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Lucy. They say she’s back [broke (?)].
Emily: She is?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Now I been out that way there.
Emily: You have?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, ma’am. [voices overlap] I’ve been right out there.
Emily: They always felt sorry for me.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yeah. And ah, I don’t know, you know a people in the world, you know we ain’t got no friends. And some people ain’t care nothing at all about you.
Emily: No.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: All they want to to live do like they want you to.
Emily: That’s it. That’s it.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And if you do that, you all right. And I told Mr. ??? he want to [go way (?)] and ??? .
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Well, I never did have mine.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I said, [Luther, you can go ahead (?)]. But it’s the truth, but God are going a put a curse on you. And I say, “You mark what I tell you.”
Emily: Yeah, ahha.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And I said, “Mark what I tell you when I tell you anything I done looked at.”
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [He (?)] use to work at the [factory (?)]. [Where they say this cut, come home and it was [Mary Duvon (?)] address in Washington. It was put just on record.
Emily: Ahha.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: The same [music (?)].
Emily: The same [music (?)]. I know.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: When I was a little girl, I say, “That ain’t no [music (?)].” I say’s, “Stay at home.” Going to all these—
END OF SIDE B
Interview with Aunt Phoebe Boyd, Dunnsville, Virginia 1935
Go to: Bibliographic Information
AFS t25,751A
Interview with Aunt Phoebe Boyd, Dunnsville, Virginia 1935
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Seed come up you know they just as fine as they can be. And the ah, leaves come over [this side (?)]. And you set them out, just take them little leaves together you know, and set them down in the ground. In the [land (?)]. Or plot of [dirt (?)], or, or [chip (?)] something right on the [bud (?)], till it take root.
Emily: Take root?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yeah, that’s the way I did [rooting (?)], that’s the way everybody do.
Emily: Ahha.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: That’s way they [set (?)] roots to do. That, that plant come at the row.
Emily: Uhmm.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I had five rows t, to fill.
Emily: Well, are you ??? ?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yeah, ma’am. I got something for this,� [put his tools (?)] tobacco and you won’t see.
Emily: Hope you didn’t chew it. I hope.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: No, I smoked it. I don’t chew. [laugh]
[Mrs. John Faulconer Ware (?)]: They don’t chew?
Emily: You do sometimes.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: No, ma’am.
Emily: You don’t?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [mumbles] Uh-uh.
[Mrs. John Faulconer Ware (?)]: Smoke a pipe?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes. [laugh]
Emily: She likes being mighty fine lately. She asked do you smoke a pipe?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, ma’am. Because every night make a [fire in stove (?)] in my room.
Emily: Ahha.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: You know where I cook at I don’t bother it. When I finish. Cook it.
Emily: Yes.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And I going and make a fire got a ??? in my room.
[Mrs. John Faulconer Ware (?)]: ???
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Afterwards, when I heat that room, getting my papers smoke as many as I want to ??? . [laugh]
Emily: Yes, [indeed (?)]. That’s right.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Well. And I tell you, the tall, the tall, ah, the tall ??? [some folks (?)] ah now, ah, now this here school our, one of our school teachers.
Emily: My Aunt [Tiva (?)].
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: No.
Emily: Was a school teacher. Tell us about the school teacher.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: She told, asked me did I raise tobacco? I told her, “No.” I told her I was, school teacher up here at the school.
Emily: Yes. ??? .
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes.
Emily: Yeah. I know.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: She said, “If you raised tobacco, you can, sell your tobacco make good money off it.”
Emily: ???
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Carry it to the [tobacco factory (?)].
Emily: Uhmm.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Carry it, have tons of it.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And would carry it to tobacco factory and it would have it put up just as nice as nice can be.
Emily: Uhmm.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Well, now you see these tobacco while it’s in these bags and things–
Emily: Yeah. I know.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: –there ain’t nothing in the world, there ain’t a thing in the�world what we do here as good as this; and they, I tell them to, “Just put in these bags and [laugh] ??? .” ??? all that. And you may take a cigarette, and I tell them, “[Smoke crazy (?)].” [laugh] That’s true. [They won’t do it (?)].
Emily: No.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Well, Mr. Hoskins, Mr. Hoskins, Mr. Hoskins got a hospital. It’s true.
Emily: I know. He built a hospital.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Right. And he was retired. And, and now ah now them there them, them cigarettes is nothing in the world but dope in them. He can’t fool me.
Emily: He told me he ??? .
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And they you know light up, light, ma-may light one now, take a piece of white paper, lay the whole over like that and that paper turn dark as can be, that’s exactly, exactly the way it is on your lungs.
Emily: Ahmm.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Because I hear talk about a young man who was in the city in Baltimore. It was in Baltimore I think, smoking these cigarettes and he got sick and it settled on his lungs. And it comes from a thing in the world but smoking cigarettes and I tell them now–
Emily: Ahha.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: –they can, if you want to make them, make them. But these cigarettes, I wouldn’t smoke them. [laugh] Nothing. And ah, we used to always raise tobacco. Raised tobacco and you can store it, just store it any way you want.
[Mrs. John Faulconer Ware (?)]: Ever raise cotton, Mrs. Phoebe? Did you ever raise any cotton?
Emily: Phoebe?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [laugh] I wish I had had some seeds in here.
[Mrs. John Faulconer Ware (?)]: You can, do you know how to, what to do with grain?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Certainly!
Emily: Well I [never made (?)] does, it looks mighty ??? when it’s growing, doesn’t it?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Want me tell you?
Emily: Yeas. I’d love to hear about that.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Want me tell you?
Emily: Yes.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Let me tell the world, George Tripper is your uncle, isn’t he?
Emily: Yes, he is.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Your uncle.
Emily: Yeah. My uncle.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Your uncle.
Emily: Yeah he is, my half uncle.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [big laugh] You know you belong from the big farm?
Emily: Yeah. I know.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: That field over down there what ??? people.
Emily: Well he ??? .
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Well, ??? . [screeching laugh]
[Mrs. John Faulconer Ware (?)]: That’s all right. That’s all right.
Emily: He’s a, he’s a Whittington.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Is he?
Emily: Yes.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Would you know a thing about that man? I done been in his ??? .
Emily: But he raised tobacco?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Who? Tom Tripper?
Emily: Cotton. Did he raise cotton?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: No, ma’am. I’m asking you about him. Because he lived in that house right there, you know, is a turn, you know. Right–
END OF SIDE A
Interview with Aunt Phoebe Boyd, Dunnsville, Virginia 1935
Go to: Bibliographic Information
AFS t25,751B
Interview with Aunt Phoebe Boyd, Dunnsville, Virginia 1935
[pause] ???
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Hmm? Hmm? Say what?
Emily: Aunt Phoebe, did you ever, did you ever work in the house for anybody, or did you work in the field for people?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I worked in the house with Mrs. Melissa Armstrong, and I was a youngster.
Emily: What kind of work did you do in that house?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Had to clean up, and set the table, tote in the eating. And then right after prepare bed.
Emily: Ahha.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I didn’t work in the field.
Emily: Where did you cook in those days? What did you cook on?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: They cook on, you know they didn’t have stoves like they got [it (?)] now.
Emily: Well, tell us. Tell us how you cooked and what you cooked on?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: They had, you know these, used to have chimneys.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: You know–
Emily: I know.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: –houses. When they hired me out they hired me out to learn me how to knit and sew–
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: –and work from the time I could [see (?)]. That’s what Mrs. [Pickins (?)]. [Mirrors fine (?)] you see the sewing machine.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And you see these tops what they knitting now?
Emily: Ahha.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: They are, they are tough as [pines (?)]. Them knit them not a one a took the heel off they could be, be, tough, tough as they is now. [laugh]
Emily: Ahha.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And ah, we used to have, you know, the chimneys didn’t have no fireplace like they got now. No fireplaces at all. They had to have, you could put almost a whole [rain (?)] on it. Had the, the, the fireplace here and the flue, the chimney went on out and fire down here. And you could, you could set, you could, they have on each side, you know, a, a shelves for to put your cook; and when you had the fire you had to have a rack. They don’t have them now, something like this here thing.
Emily: Ahha.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: What else? Fire [Department (?)] and fire from–
Emily: Was it raining?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Hmm?
Emily: Was it raining? ??? the fire on it?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: No, because something like a I don’t know what the, what the, these things, the fire was down here but these things was, was [six foot (?)] would hang the pot on the fire, they on over the fire. Now them is that day.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Them is that day.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Now they don’t have no, now not the flue. Their flue, you buy, [laugh]
did you live in the old house at–
Emily: No.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Who lives in that old house right there?
Emily: Belongs to [Whittman’s place (?)].
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Ahha. William ??? .
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Hmm. Well, there’s a fireplace in there.
Emily: Yeah. I have a fireplace in my home.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Do you? Because I done made many a fire [there for Miss Manny (?)]. [laugh] Have done many people cooked right in that house.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, sir. That’s all right. We done, done away with all them now.
Emily: Well, did the eating taste good?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Hmm?
Emily: Did the eating taste good when you cooked it that way?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Certainly! And baked biscuits. Had the oven bake your bread. You have fires on top the stove. I done showed that man one of my fires.
Guy S. Lowman: Yes, I remember.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Top stove no legs on it have fire underneath the bottom. You want to bake bread, or loaf bread every day. Put in that thing and put that pepper, put fire on top of it and brown it just as nice as could be. That’s the way we used to do back then.
Emily: It taste better, I think.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes. That’s the way it is.
Emily: Uhmm.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And ah, don’t even, reason why I ask now don’t taste good to me.
Emily: [laugh] I like for you to talk a little bit about those fireplaces.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [laugh] Yeahha. I like, look where everything done changed.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Everything.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yeah. Everything. Yeah. Well, I’m [laugh]. You and that, that gentleman both stay together?
Guy S. Lowman: Yes. We’re sadly together now.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Is you?
Guy Lowman: Yes. We’re both from Charlottesville, from the university.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Uhmm. [pause] Well, I declare.
Mrs. John Faulconer Ware: You ever grow any tobacco aunt Phoebe?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, ma’am.
Mrs. John Faulconer Ware: Tell us how you grew it. How you worked it and how you stored it.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I’m got tabacca [tobacco] right now. Why [laugh] sow the seed and a, I know cause I right know what I was thinking about tabacca. [Tend your own (?)]. M-my tabacca I ain’t [seeds of (?)] cotton for ??? .
Mrs. John Faulconer Ware: When you grow it, did you cut it after it grow?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: No, ma’am.
Mrs. John Faulconer Ware: You don’t?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: But we, we suffered you know under tobacco. I want to cut them out throw it in [see I can (?)]–
END OF SIDE B
Interview with Aunt Phoebe Boyd, Dunnsville, Virginia 1935
Go to: Bibliographic Information
AFS t25,752A
Interview with Aunt Phoebe Boyd, Dunnsville, Virginia 1935
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: ??? . I think. [laugh] Yeah.
Guy S. Lowman: What, what kind of flood did you have here about a month ago Aunt Phoebe?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Oh, I tell you it was something.
Emily: Were you scared that night Aunt Phoebe when all that rain came?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: No, no, I wasn’t scared. Because I know he [has (?)] for me. For the Lord forgiveth.
Emily: I was scared that night.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [laugh] And my house, everybody house around there; [boy, you know, the shooting out that flack (?)]?
Emily: Yeah, I know.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And the water run in there–
Emily: [The well (?)].
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: –well, out the well. And the [sand (?)]. Somebody was [looking out for me (?)]. They hung a man. Someone [in that other county (?)].
Emily: They did?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, ma’am. Somebody what they heard it in the papers. It was in the papers.
Emily: Ahha.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: But God he moves in mysterious ways his wonders to the [foam (?)]. Plant his footstep in the sea, and he rises upon the storm. Don’t he do it?
Emily: Yeah, he does. You understand all about the Bible. I hear that.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [laugh] I love it.
Emily: Yeah. That’s right.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I love it. But ah, ain’t nobody know what the man done or nothing. Ain’t nothing at all about it. And they hung him. I’d been out there laughing. They tried to hang him. I went to a place once and they were hanging a boy, a man, standing there looking about his mother, brothers and all, out yonder since I been traveling. Yes, ma’am, I stood and looked. And the, the a gallows was up as high as here covered this house, and got all the people all out coming around all standing in line. And this, this, this man standing there rope around his neck. And ah, I tell you that’s something for you to look at. I don’t know what I ain’t seen in my life.
Emily: Terrible sight I know.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yeah. And when they got ready to touch the lever, and when they touch the lever, that man, that he had the rope around his neck, and they just cut him hanging by his neck. I’m afraid that believe your eyes. Believe your eyes.
Mrs. John Faulconer Ware: You say his mother was there?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Mother, father, brother and all right there in the line. [echo] And I never saw such crying in all the days of the Lord. And I’m telling you, start living on the Lord. And, I’m just telling you all. [echo] They say he moves in mysterious ways and his wonders to the [foam (?)]. And he plants his footstep in the sea. And he rises up on the storm. And when this storm come, there was, this man they hung, and they say there was a hundred men, right around here in George Hampton’s paper?
Emily: [How many of you all was out there (?)]?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: I done, I ain’t hear was the paper, is in the paper. And I say, now, look, don’t nobody know what the man had done, ain’t know nothing about them. But he know the ??? know but. Yeah. And they, they, they couldn’t bury the people. They had to burn them up.
Emily: Yeah. That’s it.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: They had to burn them up. It was in the paper.
Emily: Yeah. I saw that.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yeah. It was in the paper. And they had to burn the people up by tonight you see, you see, you see. [laugh] Do it to suit yourself.
Emily: That’s right.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And when God rained the more it ??? .
Emily: Uhmm.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: That’s all right I can hold onto myself there. [chuckle] And I tell you this is, [I certainly would (?)]. Judgment is near at hand. It’s near at hand. It’s written in the Bible. And they [let us (?)], I don’t know, I don’t know. Time ain’t long. Do you believe it?
Emily: [Time ain’t long. Yeah (?)].
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, ma’am. I don’t believe time is long. [laugh] Yeah, well, I done told the master, I want him. [laugh]
END OF SIDE A
Interview with Aunt Phoebe Boyd, Dunnsville, Virginia 1935
Go to: Bibliographic Information
AFS t25,752B
Interview with Aunt Phoebe Boyd, Dunnsville, Virginia 1935
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Putting down big ground seed. Right there at Toole’s. That’s George Toole. In your grandfather’s time, Dr. Toole, [laugh] [Nora (?)], and ah, tobacco, were you talking about tobacco?
Mrs. John Faulconer Ware: Cotton.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Cotton.
Guy S. Lowman: That’s right. Yes.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And the, we had many barrels them had us pick.
Emily: Well, [had (?)] what kind of seeds do you plant when you raise cotton? What do they look like?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: They have cotton is raised planted it in the field. But when that cotton comes up, you see, that cotton come up, and will grow and then will come to get, the, you know drop like you see it, now you see how you ought to raise ground seed?
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: How it raised.
Emily: I think that’s much better than ??? .
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Now you, and ma once he had a hill like that, had a hill just like that, and you plant that ground seed and every time you work that ground seed put the dirt up on top.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And you know every branch come there from the hill to ground seed.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: See. Well cotton, how we pick cotton? When it bloom. When that bloom, when that bloom drop then there’s, there, it’s a, you look, bud come, and that open, when that open that cotton’s in there, well all you got to do then is pick it. Pick that cotton, pick them ah cotton out of them boll. I done picked used to have ours picked every night. Work all day long in the fields pick my uncle’s cotton at night. And I was [cough] certainly! Right here on that ??? hill.� And then used to have the looms, done spun a many, a many, a many, a mannny–m-a-n-n-n-y pounds of cotton and wool. They had [to carry us (?)] there you know.
Emily: Yeah. I know
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [laugh] And the spinning wheel, round wheel like they do these cartwheels.
Emily: Ahha.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Then the spinning wheel, well you know they have the, the, the guts, on the, you know the, the head of it, the [stretch (?)] thing and then that, the, the, the, you know while they wind the ??? on?
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Kind of like that.
Emily: Uhmm.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And this have, you know, its standing like that but it’s a ??? fast.
Emily: Uhmm.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And I wished I had as many dollars. And ah, and tobacco, tobacco, have [echos] put the dogs talking. And ah, [echo] you know pick it’s stem on it and then it twist it. I could twist tobacco when I was [real good (?)]. [echos of laughter] And I’m telling you the God’s truth. I’m telling you the truth. I have often seen tobacco get them seeds, cotton seed I plant them there underneath them cotton. Well, the man comes through the country and they say this place where I’m living at ??? —
Emily: Yes.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: –and say, ground seeds and cotton [say, that be (?)] the ground would certainly bring them.
Emily: [Did you see (?)] ??? —
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, ma’am.
Emily: –cotton?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Coming through. Just like you all. Just like this here man now. You.
Guy S. Lowman: Yes.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Ran through the country. Certainly! And ah, but it don’t never get none. I think I’m going get Mrs., one of these school teachers.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Now she live, lives in Richmond.
Emily: Ahha.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: And ah and ah want to tell her, say, he, if she, who goes to the factory and can get any cotton seed tell her buy me some bring them here, I’ll pay her.
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: [laugh] That [Monica (?)] is nice.
Emily: Yeah.
Mrs. John Faulconer Ware: Is it pretty growing?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, ma’am. Cotton patch, cotton patch it keeping them the bloom, cotton all done open and the cotton, the boll all done open that cotton just as white as can be; now you got to take that boll off the s-s [stem], you know. And pick that cotton when, don’t you know they used to have gins here in our neighborhood?
Emily: They did?
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am.
Emily: I didn’t know there were no gins.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: They have, they have their gins and they put that cotton on in them there thing and they turn it over like that and that s-s, the seed would come out on one side and the cotton on the other. Now people used to quilt bed quilts. Used to make them batten.
Emily: Yeah. I know.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Yeah. Batten that go in the quilts.
Emily: Ahha.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: Well, now they don’t have it here now. Don’t get no battens now. Buying the quilts, you know, the quilts all– [laugh]
Emily: Yeah.
Aunt Phoebe Boyd: –made with the–
END OF SIDE B